By Action Village India | Registered Charity
“I wouldn’t be here today if I hadn’t received support from this program. I would have dropped out of school and been married by now,”one girl shared.
The Indian states of Bihar and Jharkhand have among the lowest literacy rates in India, with women averaging 20.56 percentage points below men. This disparity stems from two areas: infrastructural barriers and societal attitudes. Although both genders face challenges in accessing schools, travelling long distances, poor facilities, girls encounter additional cultural constraints. Parents prioritise male education as an investment in future income, while daughters are expected to marry, relocate and require dowry payments. Opportunity cost of household labour further discourages school for girls. Consequently, lack of education contributes to their early marriage, economic dependence and reduced autonomy, creating long-term social and economic instability for women. This limits workforce participation, and contributes to generational poverty cycles.
Action Village India partners with Nav Bharat Jagriti Kendra (NBJK) to tackle this issue using a double pronged approach, one that tackles immediate infrastructural challenges in accessing education and dismantling rooted discriminatory societal beliefs. The programme has so far supported 1,000-1,050 girls between the ages of 11-18 through initiatives such as direct educational sponsorship, tuition in challenging subjects like Maths and Science, enrolling pupils in extracurricular activities to enrich their skillset, regular assessments to identify areas for improvement, gender-awareness groups to warn against child marriage. The programme identified 350 girls for one-on-one support, 650 attend learning centres for additional help and 250 girls including both students and dropouts attend gender-awareness workshops to build confidence whilst challenging harmful stereotypes. More than 5000 community members have been recorded in attendance at gender-awareness workshops, including parents.
Investing in girls' education not only significantly improves their quality of life but leads to better regional development and health outcomes and is crucial for eradicating poverty.
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